watching the swallows go to and fro

im not sure i ever saw a swallow in real life before. i see them by the dozen now that spring is on its way. some how in the last few days swallows have bumped into me. the first was in a little child's tune david's mum was singing to his nephew while they made baby gymnastics, "swallow swallow eagle eagle" moving his arms this way and that.

the next was the following day when there were no seats on the train back to budapest so david and i stood in the corridor. the ticket inspector stopped to chat with us, a really nice guy that is making the best out of a pretty drab job... "do you have your tickets? show your tickets" up and down, up and down travelling across the country sometimes 3 or 4 times a day. he stopped and when he realized i didnt speak a word of hungarian he started rhyming off all of the chinese proverbs he knew in english. one of them was "one swallow doesn't make spring."

the next morning i saw my first swallow on the way to work. i thought about the train ticket inspectors words and didnt get my hopes up for spring. then i saw another. spring must be on its way. now the birds start to come back from africa. i like it a lot. some birds i never saw before in canada. this spring will be new for me.

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